Wall Street ended a fairly quiet four-day week with gains as investors expected trade to resume full swing next week with a slew of keenly watched indicators on the health of the US economy.
This week saw trade moving mostly up as investors’ confidence was bolstered by data released on Thursday showing a drop in weekly jobless claims and a significant narrowing of the trade deficit.
A US Federal Reserve report on Wednesday saying the US economy was seeing continued growth, albeit with “widespread signs of a deceleration,” dampened optimism, but did little to pull down trade.
“We came into the month of September with some concerns about a double dip recession and I think these concerns are slowly receding,” Jefferies market analyst Art Hogan said.
Overall, trade volume remained very low as the week was cut short by Monday’s Labor Day holiday and the Jewish new year.
Trade is likely to resume tomorrow with higher volume and continued volatility amid a string of corporate activity, including earning reports from Fedex, Oracle and Research in Motion.
“Next week could be the first real test of what investors are really thinking going into the fourth quarter,” Wells Fargo Securities analyst Gina Martin said.
Investors are likely to be focused on a slew of economic data that will stream in throughout the week, including figures on retail sales, industrial production, jobless claims and manufacturing surveys from New York and Philadelphia.
Most analysts expect the data to underscore recent months’ strengthening in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, which have underpinned the US’ sluggish recovery from its worst recession in decades.
However, indicators on consumer mood and the state of the labor market are expected to have the biggest influence on the market.
Analysts said that political events were also likely to sway markets ahead of November mid-term elections.
This week saw “the usual ups and downs. We shouldn’t be surprised to see the same kind of ups and downs in the next weeks until we clear the elections,” independent market analyst Joel Naroff said.
“We’re dealing with expectations rather than economic reality,” he said.
US President Barack Obama on Monday pledged to invest US$50 billion to create news jobs in a massive infrastructure campaign as he struggles to show Americans his economic policies are yielding positive results.
For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.14 percent to 10,462.77 and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.46 percent to 1,109.55.
The technology-rich NASDAQ composite index was up 0.39 percent to 2,242.48.
Last week, Wall Street closed its strongest week in two months after a much-anticipated jobs report lifted hopes that the US economic recovery was on the right track.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS